During doctoral education at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Each doctoral student is assigned a main supervisor and at least one assistant supervisor. Sometimes several assistant supervisors may be assigned who contribute different competencies in relation to the doctoral student's thesis work. The main supervisor must at least have docent competence and be employed at LiU. The assistant supervisor must have completed a doctoral degree but may be employed at another higher education institution or organization.

The doctoral student is entitled to supervision during the education as long as the vice-chancellor has not decided otherwise. It is for the vice-chancellor to decide that the doctoral student is no longer entitled to supervision and other resources for the education if a doctoral student significantly disregards his or her commitments according to the individual study plan.

A doctoral student who requests this has the right to change supervisors.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences has a supervisor policy. Please use this link to access it (in Swedish).

The individual study plan can be seen as a form of contract between the doctoral student and the supervisor where, under specified conditions, one commits to perform certain tasks. It is important that the doctoral student and the supervisor discuss and clarify at an early stage what expectations they have of each other. An individual study plan must be drawn up and decided on no later than two months after the doctoral student has started his or her studies.

The ISP system is a web-based system for managing doctoral students' individual study plans.

In the ISP system, the study plan is drawn up and revised by the main supervisor and the doctoral student. After this, it is reviewed and approved by the Director of Doctoral Studies (FUS) and finally confirmed by the head of department.

You can read more about eISP here: Electronic individual study plans (login required)

A doctoral student who has studied and passed courses at another university or higher education institution in Sweden or abroad may have the achievements credited in the doctoral education. It is the main supervisor who makes the decision about credit transfer. The individual study plan must state which courses a doctoral student will study in the doctoral education. This means that the main supervisor and the doctoral student have already discussed and agreed in advance which courses the doctoral student will take. When the doctoral student has completed a course at another university or higher education institution, the main supervisor can decide about credit transfer.

The doctoral student also has the opportunity to apply for credit transfer for courses that were completed with a passing result before the doctoral studies began. In this case too, it is the main supervisor who makes the decision about whether credit transfer can be made or not. However, educational elements that are necessary to fulfill the basic and special eligibility requirements may not be credited.

A doctoral student whose application for credit transfer has been rejected may appeal the decision. The appeal must be submitted to the registrar at Linköping University no later than three weeks after being informed of the decision.